Crosswords5 mins ago
You Tube And Broadband
10 Answers
I posted recently about ongoing YouTube nightmares. This is just an update because today I discovered something unexpected, albeit blindingly obvious in retrospect.
Updating various bits such as Flash Player didn’t work; video playback still very bitty and jumpy. Turns out this has almost nothing to do with my old PC running XP. It’s the effect of an old processor (1.5Gb) trying to deal with the extremely rapid data transfer of fibre optic broadband – it just can’t cope. A guy at PC World told me the arrival of fibre optic caused a bit of a stink because a lot of older computers couldn’t handle it.
The strange thing is that a year or so back, when I decided my internet speed could do with a boost, YouTube wasn’t really that bad. With fibre optic it’s terrible. Too much data, too quickly.
The answer for me has been purchase of a new 8Gb system – no choice really as my old PC’s hardware has been maxed out in terms of upgrades. All internet access and media software (for audio/video) will use that and I’ll keep the old PC for work. There’s a clever little desktop box that links both systems to use one monitor, keyboard & mouse, so I only have to press a button to toggle between them.
Hopefully this will all be set up by early next week so I can enjoy our Night Night songs again.
Updating various bits such as Flash Player didn’t work; video playback still very bitty and jumpy. Turns out this has almost nothing to do with my old PC running XP. It’s the effect of an old processor (1.5Gb) trying to deal with the extremely rapid data transfer of fibre optic broadband – it just can’t cope. A guy at PC World told me the arrival of fibre optic caused a bit of a stink because a lot of older computers couldn’t handle it.
The strange thing is that a year or so back, when I decided my internet speed could do with a boost, YouTube wasn’t really that bad. With fibre optic it’s terrible. Too much data, too quickly.
The answer for me has been purchase of a new 8Gb system – no choice really as my old PC’s hardware has been maxed out in terms of upgrades. All internet access and media software (for audio/video) will use that and I’ll keep the old PC for work. There’s a clever little desktop box that links both systems to use one monitor, keyboard & mouse, so I only have to press a button to toggle between them.
Hopefully this will all be set up by early next week so I can enjoy our Night Night songs again.
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>>>It’s the effect of an old processor (1.5Gb)
I think you have got slightly mixed up.
1.5GB is the RAM memory your PC probably has.
That is nothing to do with the processor (CPU) though that is probably old as well.
However computer technology has moved on in the last 15 or so years since XP came out, and PCs then were not designed to handle huge amounts of video data throughput.
Data moves around a PC in something called the "BUS" and there is a "BUS" speed. The BUS speed has improved dramatically in 15 years (as had CPU speed, memory speed, graphics card speed and so on).
And all of these slower devices in old PCs just cant handle the huge volumes of data.
You did right to get a new PC (although not if you bought it from PC World - don't trust them).
I think you have got slightly mixed up.
1.5GB is the RAM memory your PC probably has.
That is nothing to do with the processor (CPU) though that is probably old as well.
However computer technology has moved on in the last 15 or so years since XP came out, and PCs then were not designed to handle huge amounts of video data throughput.
Data moves around a PC in something called the "BUS" and there is a "BUS" speed. The BUS speed has improved dramatically in 15 years (as had CPU speed, memory speed, graphics card speed and so on).
And all of these slower devices in old PCs just cant handle the huge volumes of data.
You did right to get a new PC (although not if you bought it from PC World - don't trust them).
Also made the sensible decision to download Open Office - free and brilliant.
Just for the sake of doing the exercise, also re-downloaded Simple Sudoku which was written before XP turned into something else, and it works perfectly well on Win10.
Now need to rummage around for other bits and pieces, see if they work too.
Just for the sake of doing the exercise, also re-downloaded Simple Sudoku which was written before XP turned into something else, and it works perfectly well on Win10.
Now need to rummage around for other bits and pieces, see if they work too.
The only disappointment so far has been SoundForge. I only use it to treat MP3 files – normalisation, getting rid of lead-in/out silence, converting to WMA. It was installed on the old system from a long lost CD given to me by a friend.
Just found out it costs the best part of £300!
I know there are free alternatives, but SoundForge is so easy to use.
Just found out it costs the best part of £300!
I know there are free alternatives, but SoundForge is so easy to use.
The latest version (11) costs £300 but there is older versions available, apparently free. Maybe that would do the job?
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